Memory and Environment: The Intersection of Fast and Slow Violence in Transnational European Literatures

This project studies how questions of cultural memory and the environment are explored in contemporary European cultures through the medium of transnational literature. In our postmigratory societies cultural memory is often divisive: people clash over their different linguistic, cultural or religious heritage. The recent pandemic, but even more the intensification of climate crisis, has raised our awareness about planetary connectedness. The project innovates methodologically in bringing together transnational memory studies, environmental humanities and ecocriticism to inquire how transnational authors explore the intersection of diverse violent postcolonial and postimperial histories and their environmental impact in different cultures in Europe. We investigate how literature experiments with genre and translingual practices to represent the non-human scale of environmental change and to imagine human subjects in a new way as enmeshed transcorporeally in their environment.

Research staff

Eneken Laanes' main research fields include cultural memory studies, trauma studies, critical theory, multilingualism, autobiographical writing, public history, visual history, Eastern European memory cultures, contemporary transnational literature in Estonian, German, English, Italian and Russian. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature, which she earned from the University of Tartu in 2009.

Selected publications related to the project’s topics:

Laanes, Eneken, Jessica Ortner and Tea Sindbaek Andersen. 2025. Literature and Mnemonic Migration: Remediation, Translation, and Reception. Berlin: De Gruyter.

Laanes, Eneken. 2024. “Katja Petrowskaja’s Translational Poetics of Memory.” New German Critique 152: 51−78. DOI: 10.1215/0094033X-11165784.

Laanes, Eneken. 2024. “Memory Translation and Minor Transnationalism.” Dynamics, Mediation, Mobilization: Doing Memory Studies With Ann Rigney. Eds. Astrid Erll, Susanne Knittel and Jenny Wüstenberg, p. 237−242. Berlin: De Gruyter. DOI: 10.1515/9783111439273-034.

Comer, Margaret, and Eneken Laanes. 2023. Perpetrators, Collaborators and Implicated Subjects in Central and Eastern Europe. Special Issue of The Slavic and East European Journal 67 (3).

Julia Kuznetski's main research areas include contemporary Anglophone literature, literary and cultural studies, environmental humanities, new materialism, ecofeminism, blue humanities, gender studies, and transnational literature. In this project, she examines the representation of the social and gendered dimensions of environmental crises in transnational literature, including postcolonial Anglophone and Francophone literature, as well as Slavic and Finnish literature. What role do narratives play in creating and revealing the blind spots of history and memory? How does literature help to reconceptualise the scales of time and space by connecting multidirectional memory with the planetary one? Key concepts include slow violence, scales of nature and environment, hyperobjectivity, the materiality of nature and memory, environmental justice, relationality, vulnerability, and scalar literacy.

She is currently writing a monograph on the entanglement of environment, history, and memory in contemporary women’s writing.

Kuznetski holds both an MA and a PhD in Literary Studies.

Selected publications related to the project’s topics:

Kuznetski, Julia; Battisti, Chiara; Pellicer-Ortin, Silvia (2024). Introduction: Literature and Crises Across Historical Scales. In: The Routledge Companion to Literature and Crisis. (1−11). London and New York: Routledge. DOI: .

Pellicer-Ortín, Silvia; Kuznetski, Julia; Battisti, Chiara; (2024). The Routledge Companion to Literatures and Crisis. Routledge.

Kuznetski, Julia; Pellicer-Ortín, Silvia (Ed.) (2023). Kuznetski, Julia; Pellicer-Ortín, Silvia. “We Too”: Female Voices in the Transnational Era of Crises, Migration, Pandemic and Climate Change. Special issue of Women: A Cultural Review. (1−161). London: Taylor and Francis.

Kuznetski, Julia (2023). Precarious Bodies in Precarious Times: HerStorical Transcorporeality in Emma Donoghue’s 'The Pull of the Stars'. Women: a cultural review, 34 (1-2), 100−117. DOI: .

Kuznetski, Julia (2020). Transcorporeality, Fluidity and Transanimality in Monique Roffey’s Novel 'Archipelago'. In: Susana Onega and Jean-Michel Ganteau (Ed.). Transcending the Postmodern: The Singular Response of Literature to the Transmodern Paradigm. (195−212). London & New York : Routledge. DOI: .

Aigi Heero’s research focuses on contemporary German-language literature, literature and memory studies, German linguistics, and the didactics of German language. In the Memory and Environment project, she explores how German-language literature reflects and negotiates questions of memory, place, and ecological awareness. Her particular interests lie in German transnational literature, narratives of migration, and representations of Germany’s difficult history. She also investigates the role of geographical metaphors, eco-criticism, and relationality in literary texts.

Aigi Heero earned her MA in 1997 and her doctoral degree (Dr. phil.) in 2001 from the University of Freiburg in Germany.

Selected publications related to the project’s topics:

Heero, Aigi (2024). Unveiling Implicit Collective Memory: Images of Ukraine in Dmitrij Kapitelman’s Novel "Eine Formalie in Kiew". Oxford German Studies, 53, 4, 597−614. DOI: 10.1080/00787191.2024.2437873.

Heero, Aigi (2024). Voices from transition: literary reflections on postsocialist life in German and Estonian contemporary literature. Philologia Estonica Tallinnensis, 9, 129−153. DOI: 10.22601/PET.2023.09.05.

Heero, Aigi (2023). Die Wendezeit in Estland. Gohar Markosjan-Käspers Roman "Elena". Baltische Erzähl- und Lebenswelten. Kultur-, literatur-, translations- und sprachwissenschaftliche Aspekte. (149−162). De Gruyter. (Schriften des Bundesinstituts für Kultur und Geschichte der Deutschen im östlichen Europa; 87). DOI: 10.1515/9783111381886-010.

Heero, Aigi (2021). Siirdeaegsed valupunktid kirjandusteoste peeglis: Gohar Markosjan-Käsperi romaanid „Penelopa“ ja „Elena“. Philologia Estonica Tallinnensis, 6, 13−35. DOI: 10.22601/PET.2021.06.01.

Kadri Tüür is currently instructor of Estonian language and culture at University of Toronto. She is also part of the research project Memory and environment: The intersection of fast and slow violence in transnational European literatures at Tallinn University. She holds a BA in Estonian Literature from the University of Tartu (1999), an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Turku (2002), and an MA in Semiotics and Culturology from the University of Tartu (2003). She holds a PhD degree in semiotics from University or Tartu (2017).

Her main areas of research are environmental humanities, ecocriticism, ecosemiotics, and (more specifically) representations of nature in literature.

Selected publications related to the project’s topics:

Kaljundi, Linda; Mänd, Anu; Plath, Ulrike; Tüür, Kadri (eds.) (2024). Baltic Human-Animal Histories: Relations, Trading, and Representations. Peter Lang.

Kuznetski, Julia; Tüür, Kadri. Estonian literature and ecofeminism. In: Douglas A. Vakoch (Ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Ecofeminism and Literature. (233−243). London: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003195610-23.

Studia Vernacula, Estonian research journal for craft research - editor-in-chief, 2017-2024

Tüür, Kadri. Semiotics of Nature Representations: on the Example of Nature Writing. University of Tartu, 2017.

Epp Annus's main research fields include Baltic cultures and societies, Russian imperialism/colonialism, culture and society in the USSR, decoloniality, and environmental studies. She earned her PhD in Estonian Literature from the University of Tartu in 2002.

Selected publications related to the project’s topics:

Annus, Epp (2025). Environment and Society in Soviet Estonia, 1960–1990 An Intimate Cultural History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Annus, Epp (2024). Neoliberalism or postmodernism? Decolonizing Soviet Estonia, 1987–1991. Journal of Baltic Studies, 1−21. DOI: .

Annus, Epp (2023). Rethinking Soviet Selfhood in the Era of the Anthropocene: From the Foucauldian Paradigm to the Naturecultural Theory of the Subject. Slavic Review, 82 (2), 401−422. DOI: .

Annus, Epp (2018). Soviet Postcolonial Studies: A View from the Western Borderlands. London and New York: Routledge. DOI: .

Pierangelly Del Rio's research interests are Anglophone contemporary memoirs, literary texts of an auto/biographical character, eco-criticism, and memory studies. She focuses primarily on the way in which authors engage with the entanglement of slow violence, environmental degradation, and the marginalisation of historically otherised peoples. Furthermore, she looks at how authors who engage in environmental advocacy, sustainable living practices, and food growing turn to literature to construct an autobiographical self that is deeply intertwined with histories of human and more-than-human relationships.

Her main areas of research are memoir, slow violence, environmental justice, climate change, relationality, collective memory.

Past events

History is not an accident: three years of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine

Organized by Tallinn University, Institute of Humanities & RUTA Association

Feb 21, 2025

16:00 – 17:30 EET (GMT +2) / Tallinn & Kyiv time, ZOOM

History is not an accident, and Russia's war against Ukraine is not an isolated "local" conflict. It is part of a broader web of Russia's imperial/ colonial violence. Three years of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine have destroyed lives, environments, and cultural heritage, and have been accompanied by Russia’s other imperial interventions, taking different forms across various regions in a large part of the world.

Presenters: Maia Barkaia, Erica Marat, Iryna Zamuruieva.
Moderator: Epp Annus

About the speakers:
Maia Barkaia is an associate professor at the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs (GIPA). She holds a B.A. in Oriental Studies, an M.A. in Modern Indian History, and a Ph.D. in Gender Studies. These academic backgrounds have shaped her research and teaching interests, which center on Postcolonial and Gender Studies. Her work explores themes such as Imperial Entanglements, Modernity, and Inequalities in the Caucasus and Asia during the 19th and 20th centuries. She is also the co-editor with Alisse Waterston of Gender in Georgia: Feminist Perspectives on Culture, Nation, and History in the South Caucasus, published by Berghahn Books (2017, 2021).

Erica Marat is a Professor at the College of International Security Affairs of the National Defense University. She has authored several books, including most recently Transformative Violence: When Routine Cruelty Sparks Historic Mobilization (Oxford University Press 2024). She is currently working on a project on decolonial developments and processes in Central and North Asia and South Caucasus. She is also engaged in a research project on China’s and Russia’s provision of public services for illiberal governments in 15 countries across five continents.

Iryna Zamuruieva explores human-environmental relationships through photography and writing. Iryna’s current focus is on the environmental history and political ecology of rapeseed cultivation in central Ukraine. Most recently Iryna has been an artist in residence at Street Level Photoworks in Glasgow and a research fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna and worked on climate and land policy at Verture in Edinburgh.

The event is being organized by Tallinn University, Institute of Humanities, in collaboration with RUTA Association for Central, South-Eastern, and Eastern European, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asian Studies in Global Conversation. The event is funded by the project PRG2592 “Memory and Environment: The Intersection of Fast and Slow Violence in Transnational European Literatures.”

History is not an accident II: the return of molotovs and ribbentrops?

Organized by Tallinn University, Institute of Humanities & RUTA Association

Mar 7, 2025

16:00 – 17:30 EET (GMT +2) / Tallinn & Kyiv time, ZOOM

The U.S. is trying to strike a deal with Putin’s Russia. It does so over the heads of Ukraine and Europe. This move echoes some of the darkest moments in European history: the Munich Agreement of 1938, the Soviet-Nazi Pact of 1939, and the Yalta Conference of 1945.

At the same time, Trump and his officials are leading a denigration campaign against Ukraine and attempting and planning to exploit its natural resources. This marks a crucial turning point in transatlantic relations. Experts from the RUTA region and beyond will discuss the implications. What do these events mean for Ukraine, Europe, and the world?

Speakers: Kseniya Oksamytna, Terrell Jermaine Starr, Mart Kuldkepp
Moderator: Una Bergmane

About the speakers:
Kseniya Oksamytna is a Reader in International Politics, City St George’s, University of London. Her research interests focus on international organisations, security, and peace operations. Her book, “Advocacy and Change in International Relations: Communication, Protection, and Reconstruction in UN Peacekeeping,” was the winner of last year’s Chadwick Alger Book Award by the International Studies association.

Terrell Jermaine Starr is an independent journalist based in Ukraine whose work helps non-experts understand world politics and why we should care. His expertise focuses on Ukraine and Eastern European politics, as well as communicating foreign policy issues in accessible ways.

Mart Kuldkepp is an Estonian Scandinavianist and historian. He completed his PhD in Scandinavian Studies at University of Tartu, Estonia, in 2014. In 2015 he joined University College London (UCL) where he is currently Professor of Estonian and Nordic History. Mart specialises on Scandinavian and Baltic history and politics – especially foreign and security policy – and early 20th century wars. He is also interested in contemporary Baltic and Scandinavian politics, especially foreign and security policy.

Una Bergmane is a Latvian historian working on the Soviet collapse. She is a researcher at the University of Helsinki. Her first book, “Politics of Uncertainty. The United States, the Baltic Question, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union” was published in 2023 by OUP.

The event is being organized by RUTA Association for Central, South-Eastern, and Eastern European, Baltic, Caucasus, Central and Northern Asian Studies in Global Conversation & Tallinn University, Institute of Humanities. The event is funded by the project PRG2592 “Memory and Environment: The Intersection of Fast and Slow Violence in Transnational European Literatures.”

A book discussion with Darya Tsymbalyuk "Ecocide in Ukraine; The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War" (Polity, 2025)

9 March 2025, 16.15 EET (GMT +2) / Tallinn/ Kyiv time, ZOOM

Organized by Tallinn University, School of Humanities

Darya Tsymbalyuk discusses her book in conversation with Epp Annus

Russia’s war on Ukraine has not only destroyed millions of human lives, it has also been catastrophic for the environment. Forests and fields have been burned to the ground, animal and plant species pushed to the brink of extinction, soil and water contaminated with oil products, debris, and mines. The devastation of biodiversity and ecosystems across Ukraine has been immeasurable, long-lasting and its consequences stretch beyond national borders. In Ecocide in Ukraine, Ukrainian researcher Darya Tsymbalyuk offers an intimate portrait of her beloved homeland against the backdrop of Russia’s war and ecocide.

About the participants:
Darya Tsymbalyuk is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, and the Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization (CEGU) at the University of Chicago. Her academic papers and public essays explore narratives about environments, multispecies worlds, displacement, embodied knowledge, and entangled colonial histories of Ukraine. Her writing has appeared on the BBC’s Future Planet and open Democracy websites, among many other publications. In addition to her research and writing, Darya also works with images through drawing, painting, collage, and video essays.

Epp Annus is an associate professor at Tallinn University; she also lectures at Ohio State University (USA). Her interests include Baltic cultures and societies, Russian imperialism/colonialism, decoloniality, and environmental studies. Her recent and forthcoming books include Environment and Society in Soviet Estonia, 1960-1990 (Cambridge UP, forthcoming 2025) and Soviet Postcolonial Studies: A View from the Western Borderlands (Routledge, 2018). She has published two novels, some poetry and several children’s books.

This event is organized by Tallinn Univ, Institute of Humanities, the project PRG2592 “Memory and Environment: The Intersection of Fast and Slow Violence in Transnational European Literatures” and the project TF2324 “Exploring Patterns of Subject-Formation in Estonian Culture, 1956-1998”.

Publications

Author: Epp Annus

This Element investigates how natural environments and social ideas and circumstances were intertwined in fundamental ways. Various aspects of Estonian environmental thought and practices are analyzed as tied to local, intimate environments, while being at the same time connected to the global circulation of ideas.

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